25-year-old Spanish woman undergoes euthanasia after legal battle

A 25-year-old woman who has been paraplegic since a failed suicide attempt underwent euthanasia in Spain on Thursday, after her father lost a lengthy legal battle to stop the procedure, Spanish media reported.

Her case was the first to reach a Spanish court for consideration since Spain became one of the few countries to legalise euthanasia in 2021, a law fiercely opposed by the Catholic Church. The woman, identified as Noelia, died shortly after 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) at a hospital in Sant Pere de Ribes in the northeastern region of Catalonia, public television TVE and other media said.

“I simply want to go in peace and stop suffering,” she said in an interview broadcast on Spanish TV station Antena 3 on the eve of her death.”I can’t handle this family anymore, I can’t handle the pain, I can’t handle everything that haunts me from what I’ve been through,” she added.

Noelia recalled during the interview that she entered foster care when she was 13 after her parents…